The Art Con

Back in the day when MTV actually played music, I took an interest in all their different award shows. There’s the music video one, the movie one, and an ‘European music’ one. Now, I’m very bad at watching these things when it’s actually on. This is because my lack of TV watching means I never get reminded by adverts every 5 seconds. Anyway, apart from the obvious 2-millisecond-overrated kiss between Britney and Madonna that I remember, there’s 2 clips that have been stuck in my head ever since I was a kid. And they’ve re-emerged on YouTube, as if by magic. I don’t care how ‘uncool’ these clips seem to be, but…they’re old memories. Old memories that bring back the warm fuzzy feeling inside of you. Old memories that make you go, ‘Oh yeh. That.’ Old memories where you don’t even know how it happened in the first place. We’re talking old here. Anyway, first up is when Lindsay Lohan hosted the [something MTV-ish] awards when she was 17 and there was this little opening number that she did. Then there were the parody skits that, I think, the VMAs did. So I give you: Armagedd’nsync.

I made a Leisha Hailey video.

Just getting over the horrors of my mum threatening to get me an iPhone. It was all in good humour when I was talking about my next phone that I was going to get in the far, distant future, but I didn’t find it very funny.

Beijing Olympics, starting next Friday. 8 minutes past 8, 08/08/08. Because that’s how superstitious China is. The opening ceremony should be pretty snazzy. I’ll probably miss watching it. But I’ll catch it some other time. Probably by the time the Olympics have ended. That’s the most likely time when I’ll remember.
Anyway, came across this article on the Times Online website: Girls will be girls at the Beijing Olympics – sex tests will prove it. It says ‘Suspicious-looking woman athletes’ will have to undergo ‘four sex determination tests’ after being ‘evaluated from their external appearance’. This prompted me to look up trans athletes in the Olympics. Now as far as my knowledge goes, since 2003/2004-ish the International Olympics Committee allows trans athletes to compete if they have undergone full SRS and be legally recognised of their gender (so I’m guessing something along the lines of a GRC).

But back to the article, obviously these tests are intrusive and possibly a tad bit insulting to a person, but I don’t know whether to think it’s alright or it’s completely unacceptable. On the one hand, a trans person being forced to ‘come out’ and give details about their past is, well, mean, and they should have the right to not have to disclose that kind of information. But on the other hand, I don’t know how common it is for cisgendered men to pretend to be women to compete in the Olympics, and so, that’s obviously unfair if that has happened, and therefore tests are good. So I guess I’ve just got mixed feelings about this.

An argument that has come up with trans athletes competing in the Olympics, is whether there’s an unfair advantage. And by this poll, it now stands at 77% of people saying that ‘Yes, by size alone, [trans athletes] have an edge’. I decided to vote no, because I figured that they take hormones, so…somehow…that means there’s no advantage. And my thinking was confirmed in this article, that indeed, ‘When a male-to-female transsexual undergoes hormone therapy, they are reducing their testosterone levels and taking female hormones. They lose muscle mass, which is the advantage testosterone gives you.’
You think that’s complicated, think how it would be for someone who’s intersexed.

I wonder what it’s like to live in an igloo.

Try out the new Facebook profiles at new.facebook.com. LiveJournal’s getting back basic accounts. And The L Word’s taking 1 character and making a spinoff show. It’s going to be continued online. I think it’s a bad idea. My bet’s on Shane. But, in all honesty, it really should be based on Angelica. Angelica: All Grown Up. From pre-school to powerhouse boss just like her Momma B.

Got a Macintosh Classic II out of the cupboard the other day. Well, I actually got it off of this really tall bookcase, and it nearly fell on me while I was getting it down. But it’s easier just to say I got it out of a cupboard. Anyway, it won’t switch on. It makes the whirring noise to say ‘Hey, I’m on now’, but it really isn’t. Maybe I should be using the original cable thingy. I wonder when I’ll be able to get it to work. Maybe it’s just old. Really, really old. But it was introduced in the same year as I was born. In fact, it was born after me. So, if that’s old, then I’m old, and, I’m not old. So it’s not old. And I still work, so it should still work. It’s all logical.

John Barrowman’s why-am-I-gay show is on tonight at 9 on BBC1. If you miss it, you’ll be able to watch it on the BBC iPlayer afterwards. Click on the link to watch a trailer, and see how Barrowman’s accent magically changes.

I’ve completed Call Of Duty 4 (PS3). Twice. And I still don’t understand the significance of the last scene after the credits have rolled. It’s just, there. For no reason.

My school gave us The Penguin Careers Guide. I wasn’t really planning on becoming a penguin when I grew up, but I take all my options into consideration. Maybe waddling around in the South Pole isn’t as bad as it sounds. I don’t think my school has high hopes for us though. The least they could’ve done was let us be polar bears. I like polar bears a lot more then penguins.

I wish we had a dinosaur like this in the Natural History museum. Might scare the shit out of some kids, but it looks pretty cool. It’s not CGI but some guy in a costume. That must get pretty heavy after a while.

Future of Google turns into Digg

So, if you get a mathematic tattoo, does that classify as cheating in an exam?

Jogli is a slick not-so-little music search engine even though it’s still in beta. For instance, if you search for ‘Sara Bareilles’ you get a biography, playlists, and a list of albums. From an album, you get a track list where you can listen to, usually, all of the songs – sourced from YouTube – with lyrics on the side. You can drag and drop to make playlists, and then save them or keep favourites if you sign up.
And what’s a music site without recommendations? A no-recommendations music website. And therefore quite useless. Jogli gives similar artists and albums while you’re searching away. See, fun, fun, fun.

And if you like Sara Bareilles you should check out Tamar. Came across her after she won a competition for the best cover of OneRepublic’s ‘Apologise’. Then I listened to Transcend. And she only recently got signed, so a debut album is on it’s way this year.

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I saw Into The Hoods the other night. Not your typical West End show, but the dancing is amazing. The story line is a bunch of fairytales mushed together, and there was something about 2 kids getting lost, a bunch of people falling in love, possible a gold trainer fit in there somewhere…I was just there for the dancing.

There was also dancing in Step Up 2. Surprise surprise. Now, I’m terrible at reviewing movies, but even I know that the first one was better then the second. Again, I was just watching for the dancing. I don’t even remember what happened in the movie. All I can tell you is that the lead girl reminded me of Erin Kelly (Loving Annabelle), and the DVD cover for it reminds me of the Honey cover.

Also watched Freedom Writers for the first time. Stars Hilary Swank (Boys Don’t Cry, Million Dollar Baby), and based on a true story. One of those stories where there’s a class of messed up teenagers, teacher comes in, changes everything, happy ending, bla bla bla. It’s good.

Went to Hampstead Heath the other day. It was quite late in the evening. I was standing at that really high point where you can see the London skyline and me and my bad eyesight spotted some weird glowing lights down by a tree. I assumed it to be candles of some sort, because I don’t jump to weird conclusions. Ever. So I ended up not venturing down there to see what was going on, but I’m guessing it was some sort of cult. And they positioned themselves next to ‘The Field of the Long Grass.’ Which can only mean one thing: they were contacting aliens and that was where the crop circles were going to be. Let’s get real, they weren’t exactly going to be ‘The Cutting Grass Cult’. No, there’s another name for those kinds of people. Gardeners.
So I let them get on with their business. Next up, we were driving back home and we passed a cemetery. Enter cult number 2. There was a group of people in the cemetery, with a dim light shining on them, and I think they were sitting on benches. Contacting the living dead? Talking to spirits? Having a clothes auction? Personally, I think they were trying to interfere with the alien connection. Now, I say ‘clothes auction’ because there was a rack of clothes that everyone was facing. But who would have a clothes auction in a cemetery? So I’m sticking with that it was some sort of peace offering. But to who I don’t know. I don’t want to jump to any weird conclusions.

Parents are embarrassing. There’s no doubting that. Whether it’s unintentional or intentional, you can’t take them anywhere. I went to Harrods the other day with my dad (who like to advertise that ‘There is only one sale’ because they think they’re so great). I haven’t been there in ages, so my dad decided to take me to the new pet shop that they just made. As I said, parents are embarrassing, so when we’re looking at the dogs, along with all the other people surrounding around, my dad proceeds to say out loud ‘Oh this dog. This dog doesn’t taste so nice’. He likes to be funny like that. And I just laugh at everyone’s expressions, while covering my face. Then we move on to the rats and hamsters. And then my dad says ‘Hey, how come Chinese hamsters only £10? The rats are £35. So racist,’ in his overly dramatic mildly Chinese accented voice. Keep in mind, this is all in good humour, and he wasn’t actually being serious. I then pointed out that all the ‘foreign’ hamsters were £10. Yep, a racist little pet shop.

Speaking of dog meat, for the Olympics this year, Beijing have taken it out of the menu in order ‘to respect the dining customs of different countries.’ How kind. You know how Chinese restaurants hang the meat in the restaurant front, my dad once showed me a picture of how they did the same with dog meat. I’m scarred for life.
The changes for Olympics doesn’t stop there though. There’s also queuing training. Where they teach people in China to queue. Because it’s virtually non-exisistent there.
So, as my cousin said, they’re basically teaching China to be more civilised.

Tinseltown. Milkshakes are yummy. Oreo milkshakes, even better.

89p Pocky! Score! But it is located in a galaxy, far, far away. I finished 2 boxes in 2 days. I need to learn how to ration it out properly.

Discover new music with Muxtape

If you haven’t watched Aerosmith’s ‘Crazy’ music video yet then you really should.

Bubble wrap calendar. Genius.

Earlier this week I watched 300 for the first time. It’s the kind of movie where guys go ‘Oh look how macho we are’ and then proceed to imitate the fight scenes in slow motion, sound effects included. But the movie is good, and it was showing virtually every night for the past week or so on TV so I’ve been watching it virtually every night for the past week or so on TV. It’s a tad bit overrated, which is what brought me to watch in the first place, but the fight sequences are cool, and there’s enough action throughout the movie to keep me occupied.

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Posh restaurants. I don’t do so well with them. We tend not to get along all the time, and we have our occasional disagreements. They call for acting all proper at the table and sitting sensibly, waiting for the food to arrive. I guess I have the ability to do that, with a lot of hard work and focus. It’s no easy task. Easier said then done, you get the idea.
The ‘appetisers’ arrive, and I finally get around to discovering what cutlery I have in front of me.

I’m confronted with 2 wine glasses, 2 knives, 2 forks, but luckily, just 1 spoon. I think they somehow thought it would be easier to deal with just 1 spoon. I’ve seen worse happen, and heard of incidents of there being 5 of each item, so I decided to soldier through it. Now, I have no idea how this whole cutlery thing works (when there’s more then one of each), so I searched around in my brain in the ‘Life Lessons’ section, and found what I needed: Let’s see, it was 1999, Five’s Keep On Movin’ was Number 1, Lance Armstrong won his first of 7 consecutive wins in the Tour de France, and I was going through my Titanic phase. Ah Titanic, Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) was in the same sticky situation that I was being presented with at this moment.

Me/Jack: Are these all for me?
Voice in my head/Molly Brown: Just start from the outside and work your way in.

So I did. Well, for the forks I did. The knives ended up never being used.
A warning for those of you who do not frequent such restaurants: they heat the plates. No one told me this. So as I picked it up to start playing race car driving, I promptly dropped it back on to the table, resisting the urge to grab the glass of water in front of me and pour it on my hands. That wouldn’t have been very proper.

The easiest solution to all this mess? Stick to home dinners people. Much less complicated.

If you have a website that you don’t want to bookmark but still want to read later, you can use, well, Read it Later. Conveniently named. Firefox extension. Didn’t work when I used it, but that was before all the compatibility shizzle was sorted out. I moved on, used Taboo. Then I moved on yet again, and now LaterLoop provides for my link saving needs. It doesn’t look as pretty as ReadBag though, but we’ll see how it goes.

I want this book. Time for some let’s-sneak-this-into-the-next-Amazon-order-shh.

Oh my goody gosh. I swear, there are 50 million trillion different Diner Dash games, it’s unbelievable. They just keep coming out with different ’storylines’ for each one every single day. Ok, maybe not every day, but relatively close to that…for me. So the most recent one is called Flo Through Time: Snack to the Future. Which reminds me of Back to the Future. There are no aliens in the screenshots, that’s…not so great. To be honest, I’ve never played any of the Diner Dash sequels, and just stuck to the original. It got kind of boring after a while, and a ‘thrilling’ title like that doesn’t quite persuade me to come back and play. Instead, I got sucked into the vortex of games like Pizza Frenzy, Cake Mania, and Turbo Pizza.

3 new freeware programs I’ve recently added: Foobar2000, KlipFolio and Ditto. Ditto, being a clipboard manager, is the most useful. Foobar reduces the amount of times I have to open up iTunes – although I am thinking about downloading Winamp to cut out the need of it altogether, as Foobar doesn’t have an updated iPod plug-in…that I’m aware of. And KlipFolio, well, that’s just fun to have.

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Mucho exciting-o news-o. Had a little search around my room and hey presto found all my sea-monkey stuff again. So, as of 2-ish in the afternoon there’ll be hatching out of those magic little eggs and I’ll be like the Frankenstein creator and say, ‘It’s alive! It’s alive!!’ I wonder how long I can keep them alive this time round.

After missing it 3 times, I finally got around to watching Evan Almighty, even though it was on at 1 in the morning. Wasn’t as good as Bruce Almighty – even though I barely remember it – but Lauren Graham…Lauren Graham = h-o-t. And she’s funny, maybe not in the movie but in any Ellen DeGeneres interview, she. Just. Funny.
Also watched C.R.A.Z.Y. which was recommended by ~monsterjay. She’s right, it’s good. It’s French, which means subtitle reading throughout the whole movie, so I had to give my brain a break in the middle, but it’s still pretty good.
Last night The Pursuit of Happyness was on, so I watched that again even though that was also on at around 1 in the morning to. That’s a sweet movie.
And no matter how many times or how hard I try, I can’t get through In Her Shoes. I’ve stopped and started watching that movie about 5 times so far. And I think I’ve made it to around 40 minutes in by doing that. Is it really worth watching? I don’t even know why I’m trying to watch that movie. Maybe it’s time to give up.

You know when people ‘talk to themselves’. And I mean as in when people say something out of frustration, like a swear word, or a ‘Why are you doing this to me? I never did anything to you’ type thing. Well, I’ve gotten into a habit of saying ‘Ya kid’. And I don’t know why. The translation I guess is ‘You are kidding me’.
I don’t know where it came from, I don’t know why I say it like that, but now it’s stuck.

I once got bored on a forum and so I messed around with the smilies.

Word of the day: Loborizer

Advertising on the internet is something I can easily ignore. The chances of me actually getting that laptop because I’m the 1,000,000th visitor is highly unlikely, and I don’t really need to make an avatar of myself looking like an alien. If I really wanted to do that I’d take some space training, go to Mars, or, no wait. Actually, I’d skip the training – since I don’t have the money for that kind of thing – and get abducted by aliens first, then have dinner with them, because that’s what you do with aliens. And then after dinner, I can say ‘Take me to your leader’, and then their ‘leader’ would turn me into an alien (because I’m too good to be sacrificed), and then I’d be all blue and everything. Then I’d take a picture. Which means I wouldn’t have to click on that ad to make myself look like a blue alien.
There are much easier ways to go about these things.

Quantum of Solace: the new James Bond movie. I have no idea what the title means. I don’t know what a ‘Quantum’ is, and I don’t know what a ‘Solace’ is, but I do know what ‘of’ means, so I’m about a third of the way there to understanding what this movie is about. The trailer is here. At the end it looks like it’s saying that it’s coming out in ‘Nov 07′. I think they’re trying to be clever with the ‘007′ logo.

Muhahahaha. I’ve got invites to SoundCloud if anyone’s interested.

Yesterday, instead of working on a video I got sucked back in to Paint.NET. I haven’t done any, what’s it called, ‘image editing’ ‘photoshopping’ whatever you like to call it, in a long time. So it felt like I was learning it and doing trial and error stuff all over again. And that’s why I came out with this load of…bleh. I decided against deleting it even though I don’t like it, because I spent a long time on it. I guess it doesn’t look too bad…if you get up, walk 2 steps back, and then look at it. Without glasses…hmm, I guess that won’t work if you don’t wear glasses in the first place. If you don’t, then find a pair and wear them, and then look at it.
The annoying thing was, after I finished it, I realised it looks better just like this. Things are stupid sometimes.